


Lab Partners

by grandfatherclock



Series: Half-Seconds at a Time [6]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Emotional Infidelity, F/M, references to sexuality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:41:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21795478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grandfatherclock/pseuds/grandfatherclock
Summary: Nott needs help in her laboratory, and Fjord... finds himself wanting to offer that help.
Relationships: Fjord/Nott (Critical Role)
Series: Half-Seconds at a Time [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1526909
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	Lab Partners

**Author's Note:**

> njord rights <3 just a lil drabble i wrote!

The thing about Nott the Brave is that she is insufferable.

Nott is staring with determination through this device she calls a microscope, looking at this glass piece she swears has something called microbes on it. Fjord doesn’t really understand what she’s talking about, doesn’t really know what this equipment is for and what the clear liquid in her test tubes that seems like water really is. He’s sprawling on a chair, holding a clipboard and not writing anything else down, and he doesn’t know _why_ he’s playing at this, playing pretend, playing doctor— _alchemist,_ Nott screamed in her reedy voice when he called her that, called her _Doctor Brenatto_ , though her eyes certainly got darker—except…

Nott’s hair is tied back, allegedly. Allegedly, because she says it is. It’s not. It’s the first thing he read in the manual she threw his way when he offered to help her with her experiment now that Yeza—and _oh_ , he does not want to think about Yeza—is in Nicodranas. He expected Caleb to interject, Caleb to offer his aid with all his intelligence and cleverness and oh, oh, _careful, Fjord_ , he thinks to himself, as he watches Nott’s two braids. She says it counts as tied back but she’s _lying_ , there is no way it counts, those two little things could get caught, whether on a piece of equipment or on fire. Caleb watched Fjord volunteer all that time ago and didn’toffer _his_ aid, and Fjord doesn’t know why—

“Hey,” Nott says, eyes glittering. Fjord blinks at her, and her smile, maddeningly, only widens. He wants to play a prank on her, do something. Maybe make himself look like a larger— _thicker_ , he thinks, and feels suddenly a flush on his face because he will not think about Nott’s curves or how she flaunts them more and more these days, he _won’t—_ version of her, maybe he’ll draw a dick over the table on the paper like Jester would. Maybe, maybe, maybe… “Caleb would be writing more if he were my assistant, hot stuff.”

He doesn’t react at _hot stuff_ , he doesn’t. Nott makes everything out to be a joke. “Why not Caleb, then?” He raises his eyebrow in a challenge, and suddenly it’s Nott who’s flushing, a darker green spreading all over her cheeks. Fjord doesn’t know what to do with that. “He didn’t volunteer but if you wanted him, he would be at your beck and call.” Fjord doesn’t know why he said it like that, but his voice lilted into insinuation, lilted into something that isn’t exactly appropriate, isn’t exactly neutral. He doesn’t know what to do with the fact that Caleb was giving him an assessing look as Fjord followed Nott, her opening the door and ordering him to get a lab coat as he watched her with bemusement. She had a gleeful look on her face, already mad with power.

“Caleb knows what I want, Tough,” Nott says airily, but she’s still… flushing, and she turns back to her microscope, avoiding his furrowed eyebrows as she gazes at her empty glass piece through her machine. Fjord opens his mouth to ask exactly what she wants, and his mind immediately, traitorously jumps to, _Why hot stuff? Why Tough, with that voice? Why wink at me, why joke about if you weren’t married, why, why why, Nott the Brave?_ Nott’s eyes flop almost anxiously, like she can hear the flurry of questions he’s throwing her way, and she turns back to look at him, eyebrow raised. Fjord prepares for another teasing flirtation that will leave him feeling some kind of way, but instead, she says, “Can I see the table?”

Fjord knows the table is empty, and that he wrote nothing in it. He knows Nott knows this too. So, he just smiles and says, “Fuck off,” and Nott begins a string of curses, wondering out loud what use being a paladin for a _nature god is if you don’t have any interest in nature, Fjord! This is nature. Science is nature. Not just meditating and watching shit happen_. Fjord just winks at her, and her eyebrows raise, hand immediately reaching for the crossbow that’s always strapped at her side, cinching her coat there from the pressure of the weight of it. He casts _Misty Step_ , and he knows she’s on his tail as he immediately runs for another room, still holding the clipboard in his hand.

Nott the Brave is insufferable, but though he has to deal with her… to be fair, and he _smiles_ as he considers this, she also has to deal with him.


End file.
